Friday, June 12, 2009

Lenore's always had a knack for interviewing and, like such, I always enjoy reading the ones she posts on her blog even if I've never heard of the author before. Her latest is great--not only because of the topic (go see for yourself), but because the author, Paul Harris, gave what just might be the best answer to the ask-yourself-a-question bit:

Q: Is there a question you’ve always wanted to be asked but never have been?A: I am going to use this excellent question to harp on about a key pet peeve of mine that I am always amazed never gets any political attention in America. So the question is: What simple thing would most improve America for Americans? My answer is: give everyone a minimum of four weeks vacation a year. Ideally, five. In Europe we are generous with our vacations. In America many people only get two. I find this astonishing. Sometimes newspaper columnists here in the US even laugh at the French/Germans/Italians for their long summer vacations and their smaller Gross National Products. Well, the joke is on them.

And it goes on to enumerate and eloquently justify his point. But I'm obviously not going to quote the whole thing on here. Move on over to L's for a bit.

Yeah, Americans have this idea that vacation = slacking, so the less you take, the better you look in the work place. I once knew someone who said "You're not really supposed to take personal days" and someone once got in trouble for taking personal days--time off that he was entitled to!

Most companies don't even give you a few days in your first year or two of employment.

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